​LATEST STORIES

We want to say a special thank you to our team of Ambassadors who are holding their 'Hope, Life, Colour, Fun' Ball this weekend, raising funds to help equip and run our tented schools for Syrian refugee children in Lebanon.We’re delighted to be welcoming Douglas & Gordon as sponsors for the evening at Cowdray Park, Midhurst, whose support is enabling us to provide a tent school, and train and support four teachers to help educate a hundred refugee children for a year.

This event is happening at an exciting time for the project, as the children have just started their new term. Over the summer the children took two weeks off over Ramadan and then did an extra two weeks of school to catch up on the learning time they lost when their camps were evacuated in December. Despite this, all 264 children in the schools last year completed their learning and passed their exams. To celebrate they enjoyed a graduation week with certificates, rewards and trips.

James Evans, CEO at Douglas & Gordon, said “Children on the Edge is a fantastic charity that we, at Douglas & Gordon, are proud to support. We hope that with our ongoing partnership, Children on the Edge will be able to sustain and grow their projects in Lebanon.”

This year sees an extra 160 children enrol, taking the number of children in the tent schools to over 400. We are excited to have the support of Douglas and Gordon as we begin the new term and see the progress it brings.

It’s been over a month since the flood waters in Bihar State rose to unprecedented levels causing damage, destruction and the death of over 200 people. Children on the Edge have been able to support our local partner, Navjeevan Education and Social Welfare Society in aiding some of the families hardest hit by the floods and from the start of September launched an appeal for donations.

Since this time, flood water has receded and people in Bihar are beginning to return to their villages. Most are repairing damage or rebuilding houses that have been completely washed away. A spokesman for the Bihar governments said "The real assessment of damages and losses will only take place after floodwaters recede fully by the second week of October.”

Sister Veena Jacob who leads Navjeevan Education and Social Welfare Society says “The problem people are facing is building their huts again and getting clean drinking water. The ground water here has become mixed with flood water. There is no clean water”.

With the support of your donations Navjeevan have provided food for 1000 families, including rice, dhal, beaten rice sugar, milk powder for children and biscuits.

We are keeping the appeal open and ask for continuing donations to help people in the aftermath of the flood. Sister Veena says “We are grateful to you for the help given to the flood victims. What people really need now is clean water, hand pumps and help to rebuild or repair their houses”.

The weekend conference is a chance for The Body Shop At Home™ consultants to get together, learn about new products and get ideas for building and growing their business, as well as finding out more about our work. They heard from our Head of UK, Ben Wilkes about how their efforts directly support our work in Uganda and also found out about how they can continue to support Children on the Edge with fundraising ideas.

The Body Shop At Home™ consultants are divided into 10 different regions of the UK and each do their own fundraising. Enthusiastic Regional Managers and Children on the Edge Champions in each area do a fantastic job of encouraging their team members to support our work. The conference at the weekend gave us a chance to celebrate their successful fundraising so far this year, see just how much each team had raised and find out who was on track to meet their fundraising targets.

Staff members Eloise, Amy and Ben were raising funds for Children on the Edge on the day too, all going towards The Body Shop At Home™ regional team totals. They did this by selling raffle tickets; wrapping paper; colourful new t-shirts and our favourite Montezuma’s chocolate - which proved very popular!

In just one day, the generous delegates helped us raise an amazing £6,670. This joins the £39,732 already raised by The Body Shop At Home™ this year.

We’d like to say a big thank you to everyone at The Body Shop At Home™ for their amazing fundraising efforts and continued support.

If you’d like to support our work by making a donation, you can do that here.

​PS. If you like the look of our beautiful new wrapping paper - themed as ‘A Season of Hope’ - we’re delighted to say that it will be available to buy soon. If you’re interested in stocking this in your shop or business, or would like to find out how you can help fundraise for Children on the Edge by selling it in your community, please get in touch with Amy Rook our Fundraising and Communications Officer – amyrook@childrenontheedge.org | 01243 538530.

Recent monsoon floods in India's Ganges river have created unprecedented water levels at four locations in northern India causing damage, destruction and loss of life.

Bihar state, where we support education projects for Dalit children, is one of the worst flood-hit states in India with at least 150 deaths and nearly half a million people evacuated. The highest water level record was in Patna, the state capital of Bihar where flood waters reached 50.52m.

Sister Veena Jacob who leads Navjeevan Education and Social Welfare Society, one of our partner organisations in Bihar, describes the situation.

“The most affected areas are six Panchayathsin Manner Block, Kitha Chwarthar Madhay and Haldi Chapara which consist of 12 villages and are completely under water. There are 50,000 people affected by this flood very badly. Many people are staying back in the villages to safeguard their belongings. They are staying on the house tops. They are drinking the flood water, [there is] no fire wood to boil the water.

Only a few are reaching out to them with relief because they are cut off from the main land. The relief camp is kept without basic facilities of food and clean drinking water. It is very heart breaking to see children crying for food to their mothers. Mothers have nothing to provide for the children.”

Children on the Edge has made an immediate response to the crisis by sending payment for rice, dahl, beaten rice, sugar, candles and matches for 400 families in the immediate area.

The flood situation remains very serious and it is expected their water levels may rise again. Hundreds of thousands of people are not being reached by government help. There is huge gap in food supplies, sanitary kits, clean drinking water, medicine and temporary shelters.

We are making an emergency appeal to support the people of Bihar at this time.

Sister Veena has asked “On the behalf of the flood victims in Bihar I make an urgent appeal to people of good will to generously contribute to this humanitarian call and express our solidarity and support in time of need. Your contribution will make a difference in the life these needy people”